Mazerlodge’s Voice

Seeing people at a client step all over themselves to please their boss inspired a thought.

The logic behind attempts to please a boss may flow in some people like this:
1) I declare the boss to be important
2) I do things the boss likes
3) therefore I am pleasing to someone important

And Another Thing (Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy Trilogy, Book 6)
Eoin Colfer

Let me start this review by saying my dog apparently thought the book might be delicious.  She tried to eat it, and I hadn't finished yet-- reading, not eating.  She chewed the front cover corner when I set it on the coffee table.  I should have known better, previously she had licked that table and given me a look that asked, "This doesn't taste like coffee, what gives with the deceptive name?"

Another note about the book's exterior before we plumb the depths of the content within.  I like the little blurb on the back that offers an explanation of the title (yes, the title does appear in a different context within the book, page 271 if you're looking for it).  I read the back cover in the store while picking the book up and thought, "oh, this is going to be good!"  It was raining that day, and I took the book from the store to the hair cutting place (I hesitate to call it a barber shop because it isn't and I hate to call it a salon because I don't look like something that should be going into or out of an establishment called a 'salon').  I thought there would be a wait and I could start to read.  There wasn't, did I mention it was raining that day?  Seems people are hesitant to get coiffed on a cloudy day. A little precipitating dew wasn't going to hurt my 'doo so off I went.  Then I went next door for a take-and-bake pizza, book still in tow.  Still no waiting, and I was heading back to my ride in no time.  Which reminds me, a long time ago I thought of my first car as a Vogon ship- it wasn't a particularly pretty thing but ran well and did the job for many years.  Regardless, as I approached my car I almost dropped the book.  It was raining you know and dropping a new hardback $25 book outdoors, a book you've waited years to read-- OK, waited years thinking it was going to appear, then having all hope dashed when the author of the book's predecessors died unexpectedly, then waiting maybe a year or so when hearing that someone else was going to write the book and wondering so much how THAT was going to work out you went out and read one of HIS books and thought it was OK but how the zark was this guy going to pull off DNA-class wordsmithing?  I mean seriously, do you think its a coincidence the fundamentals of life on planet earth is arguably encoded in something called DNA, need I say more?  

But where was I?  Oh yeah, I almost dropped the book.  I bobbled it and caught it, still balancing pizza and thumb wresting my keys to get the little door unlocker fob in position so I could push the unlock button (now which one is it again?) and get out of the rain.  The whole time I was thinking "whew, I don't want to bang up this book before I've had a chance to read it".  Then my dog ate it.  Just a nibble really, but still.

So where's the book review you say?  Well, that's kinda it, up there. See, this book was so set up, against an incredible body of work, and waited over for so long, what could you possibly say in a review?  I know what Eoin would like to read; that it was fabulous, spot on, such a worthy tribute to Douglas that it brought both tears of laughter and joy at the same time it brought a slight catch in the throat with the sadness that quiets the giggles when you remember what has been lost.  Maybe all those things happened, but its probably better to say its a fine book, thank you.

I read this book a little differently than most I read these days.  First, it was an actual paper (and apparently flavorful) book.  I usually read on an eBook reader.  That takes some getting use to, all that page flipping and holding without cracking the spine the wrong way- really, there is a bit of an art to holding a book, like holding a violin correctly without even playing  a note.  I set the dust jacket aside before hand, I didn't want to damage it (nice art work by the way, very nice).  I also read this book in bigger chunks.  Normally I don't sit down for hours at a time reading a book.  Maybe I should.  I tend to lay down and read for an hour then fall asleep.  For this one, I dug in.  Sat up on the couch (OK, pleasantly reclined with throw pillows positioned just so is probably a better description) and set out to read for hours on end.  At least two.  Then I'd take a break, maybe a pee, then back at it!

I had to focus.  As the page melted away and the story unfolded in my mind I was brought back a bit to those days of reading the first three books in the series (yes, I've read the others too, but we've had enough tangents now, haven't we?).  Authur's voice in my head hadn't changed, Trillian had grown up a bit though and seemed more mature, like a CNN reporter rather than a wanna-be MTV VJ.  Ford seemed to have slown down, aged in spirit but still capable, like Harrison Ford.  Zaphod was still putting on a good show but there was baggage now, a bit like Adam Curry.

The writing was Eoin, not Douglas.  It reminded me of Aritimis Fowl, I should have never read that book, it was months ago, good stuff in its own right, but now I could sense it in this book.  When describing Douglas Adam's writing to someone who hadn't read it (a travesty, both them not reading it and my trying to describe it) I described how Douglas could smoothly apply human characteristics to inanimate objects (The refrigerator lurked in the corner of Arthur Dent's home) and comment on huge human topics (nailed to a tree for suggesting people be nice to one another) and not get bogged down in either while coming up with novel concepts like spending a year dead for tax purposes or flinging oneself at the ground and missing as a method of flying.  And one nit, the guide entries in the 'originals' were complementary, not disruptive to the point where they even included a mocking of themselves interrupting too much.

OK, this has ran on long enough.  Suffice it to say the book is fine, but it did feel a bit like every character in the book knew Douglas was gone and they were in the hands of someone else now.  They bravely went about their parts, but I kept wondering if that tear in the corner of Trillian's eye was from laughter or sadness.  

A sure sign of the end of the summer is the Renaissance Fair.  Minnesota has a large fair, a place with permanent buildings that comes to life from the end of August to the beginning of October.  I was just puttering around in my office doing some clean up and noticed I hadn't downloaded the last batch of pictures from my camera.

Now with the leaves falling and a couple snowfalls behind us (the snow has melted from each blast, soon it will come to stay) it was nice to remember back to a warm weekend day not so long ago...

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Murder In Foggy Bottom
Margaret Truman

Written in the year 2000 by the only child of President Harry Truman, Murder in Foggy Bottom is a bit of a surprise, and proof you should not judge a book by its author's background.  Born in 1924 and reportedly a bad singer (her first chosen profession), Margaret Truman found her calling in murder/mystery novel writing.  The book is very current and with an action movie pace it is surprising this book has not been made into a movie (Trivia note: Truman's book Murder at the White House was made into a movie titled 'Murder at 1600').  If it were made into a movie, it'd probably be best filed somewhere between Die Hard 2 (the airport one) and pretty much any Tom Clancy movie.

Unlike Truman's other books (fictional ones anyway) this one includes only links to Washington D.C. but is not entirely set within the district and surrounding area.  With scenes as far away as the west coast and Russia, this book covers some ground.  FYI, The title reference (Foggy Bottom) is to an area in DC that is located west of the white house to the river and north of the Lincoln Memorial to about K street (a few blocks north). 

Truman's writing style is engaging.  There is enough description to get your imagination going, but not so overly descriptive to bog down the flow.  While probably not winning any literary awards, Truman's novels will entertain, and that's good enough for me.

Secret Adversary
Agatha Christie
 
I have a task that says "Write review of Secret Adversary".  It has a due date, and that date has been changed many times.  It also has a note.  The note is a recent addition, intended to motivate me to write this entry.  That note says "Comment on mysteries where the clues are there if you catch them versus books where the mystery is supported by omitted info".
 
That about sums it up.  Secret Adversary is a book offered for free from Daily Lit and originally published in 1922.  An aside here, Daily Lit is a service that sends a chunk of the book each day via e-mail, hence the name.  The story is about the search for a girl who has some information that a lot of people want.  As a bonus mystery, a dubious character referred to as Mr. Brown is after the mysterious girl and no one knows who Mr. Brown is.  Set in the year 1919 and with references to the sinking of the Lusitania was sunk and with the events of the story occurring in England, the story includes some period references and language that I found quaint.
 
Jeez, that's it?  I think a high school English teacher would fail me for this review.  But I don't want to give anything about the story away.  My first point, the note from my task item, was the only one I really had, and it applies to this book.  If you read carefully, the clues are there and you can solve the mystery.  If you don't catch them, at the end of the book you'll see what you missed as they mystery is solved by the characters in the book.

Book Review: Sourcery
Terry Pratchett
 
Writing anything but a glowing review seems like sacrilege.  I read Sourcery as my third Terry Pratchett book.  That seems significant given (a) He's written about a million books, and (b) It isn't the third in the "order of books" I found on the Internet in a variety of places. 
 
First on the volume of books Pratchett has penned.  Amazing.  I watched some video clips and wondered how I've managed to not read his books until now.  So I dug around and found where to start (Color of Magic & Light Fantasic).  Then I found an interesting 'road map' to Terry Pratchett books, breaking them down based on which series they belonged to.  I enjoyed Rincewind, the luggage was fabulous, so the road map lead me to Sourcery.  That pretty much explains the second point I wanted to make, which was why I read Sourcery "out of order" according to the likes of Amazon, Wikipedia, and Fictionwise.
 
Can I go off on a tangent here for a minute?  Yes, you say, in talking about a Terry Pratchett book it is most appropriate to go off on a tangent, he seems to do it to great comedic affect often.  My tangent isn't so funny though, so just ride along, we'll be back in a second.  Here we go.  Why is it so hard to find out the order of books an author has written?  So hard, you say? Yes, well, relatively speaking.  This seems to be a bit of fundamental information that should be readily available.  Fictionwise is on the right track, for most books they list the title and where it appears in a series.  Can we get a campaign going to get more people on board with this concept?  And we're back from the tangent.
 
In Sourcery, Pratchett tackles the difference between Sourcery and Wizardry, something I wasn't aware of and now feel down right informed about.  The book begins with one of the best bits, in which Ipsolore attempts (Succeeds?) at cheating Death.  Without exposing anything significant in the story, I can tell you the book deals with the someone lazy attitude Wizards have adopted.  Think of this way; groups of politicians who has been in office for a long time and develop more of a sense of self preservation than of advancement of policy and advocacy for the citizenry and you'll have the general setup when the story starts.  Then a powerful person appears with a suspicious wand and really rocks the boat. 
 
Near the end of the book lies a bit so good that even if you hated the rest of the book, you'll leave it feeling good about having read it.  It occurs when War, Famine, Pestilence and Death get stinking drunk in a pub.  I can't say why they are there, or how it all turns out, but seriously, very funny stuff.

This is the current position of the most defensive chess game I've ever played.  I'm playing it online at ChessWorld.net in a correspondence chess format (up to 5 days allowed to reply to a move).   I've never met or spoken with my opponent, the only thing I know about him (her?) is the person's profile indicates they are from Italy. 

The game has been played through move 34, Black has given up only one bishop and one knight, white (that's me) has given up both knights.  As you can see, the "pawn chains" as they say in the business are strong.  Unfortunately for white, being sans knights, means an inability to break through without a sacrifice of some sort.  The big question now is what to sacrifice and where to gain the biggest benefit.  The textbooks (OK, more like beginner tutorials) advocate working with the flow of your pawn lines.  In this case, that would imply white break through to the right of the board.  Still taking suggestions...

ChessPositionMove34

Sometimes a couple stories appearing side by side in a newspaper have interesting relationships.  In this case, they disagree on the number of houses served by a megawatt of power.  In the first story an existing nuclear plant is cited as powering a half-million homes.  In the second, a proposed coal burning plant powers a million homes.   The megawatt output of each is similar (600 megawatts versus 580 megawatts).

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My creative blogging juices have stagnated. Maybe some salad with dinner will get them flowing again.

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